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You have four basic choices:
(A) Pay a shop. If you're getting tires mounted anyway and the shop is fair/straight-up (& you use them semi-regularly or they're used to seeing your face), they'll typically only charge you an extra $10 - $20 to do it at the same time. All by itself, they tend to charge more ($40 - $80 is common). I usually do this for my own Kats, as I've never invested in a proper chain tool and tend to replace my chain about every 3rd set of tires (that's 36k miles typically for me).
(B) Invest in a proper chain tool ($50 on eBay -- arsenic keeps posting a link for a light tool, or it's just shy of $100 for the heavy tool from most vendors). This full-duty chain tool lets you press out a link, press in a new one and mushroom the new one for install.
(C) Do the same as above, but use at-hand tools. A dremel or other grinding tool to cut off the old mushroomed heads from any link in the old chain; a punch & hammer to knock the old link out afterwards, then a c-clamp to push in the new rivet-style masterlink if needed (many will just slide in). And finally, something to mushroom the head on the new rivet-style masterlink (chain tool is best, the edge of a nickel and a pair of vice-grips will work in a pinch but won't work nearly as well & is a PIA, or a hammer & pointed-punch will do if you can brace the back of the chain adequately to let you smack the front & dent it). I've done this for countless people, as well as for myself in eons gone by...
Note that mushrooming the new one just right is the tricky bit -- too much and the link won't rotate; insufficient and the link could come off, letting your chain go flying down the road -- or worse yet, around your front sprocket & doing damages, or rear-sprocket & causing you to wreck.
(D) Get a chain that uses a different kind of masterlink (something other than a rivet masterlink). Note that rivet masterlinks are the best common solution though, least likely to snap on you...
EK makes a bolt-on masterlink (the nuts bolt on to mushroom the head, and get snapped off afterwards). Many vendors make clip-style masterlinks (but clip-style are literally asking for trouble, IMHO). You still need the dremel and potentially a hammer/punch to remove the old chain.
Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet
(A) Pay a shop. If you're getting tires mounted anyway and the shop is fair/straight-up (& you use them semi-regularly or they're used to seeing your face), they'll typically only charge you an extra $10 - $20 to do it at the same time. All by itself, they tend to charge more ($40 - $80 is common). I usually do this for my own Kats, as I've never invested in a proper chain tool and tend to replace my chain about every 3rd set of tires (that's 36k miles typically for me).
(B) Invest in a proper chain tool ($50 on eBay -- arsenic keeps posting a link for a light tool, or it's just shy of $100 for the heavy tool from most vendors). This full-duty chain tool lets you press out a link, press in a new one and mushroom the new one for install.
(C) Do the same as above, but use at-hand tools. A dremel or other grinding tool to cut off the old mushroomed heads from any link in the old chain; a punch & hammer to knock the old link out afterwards, then a c-clamp to push in the new rivet-style masterlink if needed (many will just slide in). And finally, something to mushroom the head on the new rivet-style masterlink (chain tool is best, the edge of a nickel and a pair of vice-grips will work in a pinch but won't work nearly as well & is a PIA, or a hammer & pointed-punch will do if you can brace the back of the chain adequately to let you smack the front & dent it). I've done this for countless people, as well as for myself in eons gone by...
Note that mushrooming the new one just right is the tricky bit -- too much and the link won't rotate; insufficient and the link could come off, letting your chain go flying down the road -- or worse yet, around your front sprocket & doing damages, or rear-sprocket & causing you to wreck.
(D) Get a chain that uses a different kind of masterlink (something other than a rivet masterlink). Note that rivet masterlinks are the best common solution though, least likely to snap on you...
EK makes a bolt-on masterlink (the nuts bolt on to mushroom the head, and get snapped off afterwards). Many vendors make clip-style masterlinks (but clip-style are literally asking for trouble, IMHO). You still need the dremel and potentially a hammer/punch to remove the old chain.
Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet
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